Stephen Robert

Stephen Robert (born June 13, 1940) is an American financial business executive, academic administrator, and philanthropist. He was Chairman and CEO of Oppenheimer & Co. from 1983 to 1997, and Chancellor of Brown University from 1998 to 2007. As a philanthropist he heads his Source of Hope Foundation, which provides basic services to communities in great need around the world. As a journalist, he has published articles on Israeli–Palestinian relations, and on the U.S. economy, in major national and international publications.

Stephen Robert was born in 1940 in Haverhill, Massachusetts. He has stated, "I grew up in a typically Jewish family in New England. ... My father was president of the local synagogue; my mother was president of the local Hadassah."

He received a BA in political science from Brown University in 1962. He did post-graduate studies at the London School of Economics (1962–1963) and Columbia Business School (1963–1965).

In 2004, Brown University bestowed upon him an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree.

Robert began his career in 1965 on Wall Street, as a securities analyst at the investment firm of Faulkner, Dawkins & Sullivan.

In 1968 he began working at the investment bank Oppenheimer & Co. as a portfolio manager, later becoming chief investment officer. He became head of research in 1976. In 1979 he was appointed President, and was groomed for the position of Chairman and CEO, since the company's longterm head, Jack Nash, wished to eventually retire. During Robert's presidency, in 1982 Oppenheimer was acquired by Mercantile House Holdings in London, and Robert joined the Mercantile House board of directors.

He became Oppenheimer's Chairman and CEO in 1983. In 1986, Robert and Nathan Gantcher, Oppenheimer's president, led a management group that purchased an 82% interest in the company from its parent Mercantile House Holdings. The buyout returned Oppenheimer to private ownership, and Robert became the company's principal owner. In 1997 he and Gantcher sold Oppenheimer to the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), and Robert resigned from the firm.

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